“In this case, everything is wrong, everything is illegal, and everything is contrary to any civilized standards,” said Tomasz Sakiewicz, president of TV Republika, commenting on being summoned by prosecutors as a witness in connection with an investigation involving Zbigniew Ziobro.
Yesterday, TV Republika announced that Ziobro, who is currently in the United States, would become a new commentator for the station. The politician had traveled there from Hungary, where he had been granted political asylum. One day after the announcement, Republika president Tomasz Sakiewicz was summoned by prosecutors in a case concerning the former justice minister.
Sakiewicz addressed the summons on the station’s broadcast. As he stated, he has several doubts regarding the matter.
“First of all, according to statements made by the prosecutor himself, including today’s press conference, the investigation concerns whether someone helped Zbigniew Ziobro escape. So the investigation does not concern Zbigniew Ziobro himself, but rather the people who allegedly helped him. According to statements made by individuals connected to the ruling camp and journalists supportive of them, I was supposedly the one who helped him. Therefore, the investigation concerns me, yet I have been summoned as a witness and was not even informed of the possibility that I could appear there in another capacity. So I treat this as a deception,” he said.
The station president continued:
“Secondly, I am being summoned by a prosecutor who is illegally holding his position, Mr. Piotr Woźniak.” He added: “Mr. Woźniak cannot work in the National Prosecutor’s Office because he was not appointed by the legally recognized National Prosecutor, Mr. Dariusz Barski. Given that he acts together with other individuals, there is a certain probability that we are dealing with an organized criminal group — but not around Zbigniew Ziobro, rather within the prosecutor’s office itself, and it was precisely this group that sent me the letter. Of course, this is only my suspicion, because independent courts must decide the matter. I hope that will happen in the future.”
Sakiewicz stated that he has an “enormous problem” with the summons.
“Thirdly, claims that someone helped Zbigniew Ziobro escape, when he was moving legally — which the prosecutor himself admitted today during the press conference — across Europe and the United States, since no arrest warrant had been issued for him, simply mean that you cannot help someone escape if that person is not fleeing,” he assessed.
“Fourthly, I was not aware that employing someone as a commentator for TV Republika could be considered a crime. This is a new reality not seen since communist times. There were cases when even convicted individuals served as commentators in various media outlets. However, the very fact that hiring someone as a commentator is being treated as a possible crime is extraordinary. It fits neither legal codes nor accepted standards of conduct. In this case, everything is wrong, everything is illegal, and everything is contrary to any civilized standards,” he said.